This project will fully characterize the star formation properties of the local population of galaxies around the Milky Way, using four new emission-line imaging and spectrophotometric surveys of nearby galaxies. These surveys will provide the first truly complete census of star-forming galaxies in the local universe, including a sample of several hundred galaxies in 8 nearby galaxy clusters, a volume-limited survey of 385 galaxies within 11 Mpc of the Milky Way, and an NOAO survey of 500 HI-selected galaxies in the local volume. A companion survey of integrated spectra of 360 galaxies will provide improved corrections for the effects of extinction on the emission-line maps, and improved diagnostics of star formation rates and chemical abundances in galaxies.
The results of this study will be important for a large number of broader problems in astrophysics, including star formation, the physical nature of the Hubble sequence, and the formation and evolution of galaxies. Special efforts will be made to obtain observations that complement other major surveys, including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the SIRTF Nearby Galaxies Survey, and the many surveys of high-redshift galaxies currently under way. The project will also produce four public web-accessible atlases of galaxy images and spectra, to support archival investigations by other scientists.
This project will involve the training of scientists and the participation of underrepresented groups, the dissemination of scientific understanding to the public, and the provision of publicly available databases. The project will support the Ph.D. dissertations of two outstanding graduate students (including an Asian-American woman). Four junior women scientists in the research group will be major participants. Group members are also involved in various outreach activities, including undergraduate observing runs, a nationally renowned astronomy camps program for high-school students and teachers, public lectures, and interviews with the print and broadcast media.
